I love writing synopses. Doesn’t matter if I’ve written the book or not, but I do prefer to start from a rough (and when I say rough, I mean pages without paragraphs shoved up against notes saying Something Should Happen Here mixed with page-long blocks of dialogue) first draft. If I’m not lucky enough to have such a mess, I don’t worry.

Because writing a synopsis is fun.

Now, I’m sure we both know that for you, writing the book first isn’t a luxury you can afford. Nanny nanny boo boo!! Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out of my system…you also know that you don’t have to follow your synopsis. It’s sort of like a map — and the map is not the territory.

That being said, I think the toughest hurdle we face in synopsis writing is attitude. If you go into the process dreading it, you will hate every moment of the writing. If you think of all the cool things synopses do (sell your book, form a map of sorts, let you visualize your story from a very high level, give you a hint of characters, etc), then writing one can be fun.

Also (and this may or may not work for you), I find it’s sometimes easier to write a first draft in first person. Let a character tell the story like you’re both out having drinks. Then you can go back and make it pretty or change to third person or say, “Thanks, but I think I need to talk to him to get the real scoop.”

Synopses are fun!!!

Okay, so I say that while facing a synopsis for a story that right now, I have no clue what’s going on in it. That does make synopsis writing even harder than “normal.” lol.